a biblioblog by Max Lee devoted to the study of the Apostle Paul and how he uses the Greco-Roman cultural traditions, language, categories, metaphors and lexicon of the ancient Mediterranean world to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ to his Gentile churches. Every now and then, I might digress to share theological reflections, pastoral devotions, musings about the academic life, and just about anything related to the New Testament, early Christianity, or the church today

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Now that SBL-AAR 2015 is over, and the Thanksgiving festivities have passed, what is the follow-up? I still have posting to do on some key sessions at SBL that I think are worth highlighting (so stay tuned for Philo, Plutarch and Paul). But typically, it's at this time I sit down and go through all the order forms I collected during the book exhibits and with my budget in mind, and calculator at hand, I figure out what books to order online or by old-fashioned snail mail using the book exhibit discounts from various publishers. Some publishers (look at photo above) extend their discounts until mid/late December, and these discounts are typically anywhere from 40-50% off the book cover price. Since black Friday deals seldom include books, this is the best way to get books at the best price for the scholar. In the old days when airlines allowed for 2 free check-in bags (think pre-9/11 days), I would take an extra bag with me on the flight, buy all my books at the exhibits, and haul them back home once SBL ended. But with the extra charges and strict maximum weights per bag, this is no longer a good way to buy and bring books home. Now, my routine is to (1) buy books at the exhibits from publishers whose discounts end once SBL is over. I make a few strategic buy's. Then (2) I grab the order forms from those whose discount deadlines extend beyond the meeting and later sit down to figure out what books I really need/want with the limited monetary funds at my disposal. I place my order. And wait for the books to come before Christmas. This routine also saves my back as I get older and books get longer and heavier! I do most of my book buying this way, in this season of the year, because no matter what great deals are on amazon or barnes&noble, It's hard to beat a 40-50% discount from the publishers. I have to pay a little extra for the shipping, but it's still very worth it! So if you happen to know anyone who went to SBL, and he or she does not want to use their order forms, grab them from said person and get your deals while they last. Believe it or not, I and my colleagues have done this at North Park many times. We would walk down the halls of the faculty offices, knock on each other's doors, ask how our trip was to SBL-AAR, and then ask: "Do you happen to have an extra copy of the Baker Academic or Eerdmans book order form? You do?! Can I grab this from you?" Nuff said.

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Many thanks to Nijay Gupta for finding this video on Seedbed's youtube channel. Here is John Barclay giving a summary of his central thesis in the recently reviewed book Paul and the Gift. The book was reviewed at the Pauline Soteriology Seminar (S23-133) at SBL-AAR 2015 by a great panel of scholars, namely, Joel Marcus, Margaret Mitchell, and Miroslav Volf with Barclay responding at the end. I, unfortunately, had to miss the panel review since I was presiding over another session. I am still hoping someone in the blogosphere (HT Nijay Gupta) might offer some comments on the session. But this little video is a neat, tight, 7-minute summary of how Barclay's research on gift-exchange in the ancient world illuminates Paul's own discourse on grace. Thank you Seedbed for interviewing and producing this video: Some quick thoughts: Barclay points out that the Greek word χάρις (often translated "grace" in the New Testament) had no unusual meaning on its own in every-day common or Κοινή usage and simply means "gift." Paul is not unique in talking about the abundance of God's gifts to human beings, nor is he unique in saying that God was the one who took the initiative in the gift-exchange. There apparently were many examples, in the literature of the Mediterranean world, of gods being the first to give gifts to humankind, and they did so quite lavishly. What makes grace or gift unusal in Paul's gospel was that God gave χάρις to people regardless of their worth or in spite of their unworthiness. God did not pay any attention to the worth of the individual. In the ancient world, gifts functioned to produce relationships or bind two people or communities together. So an ancient person chose carefully whom to give a gift and form a binding relationship with. Not so the God of the gospel. God does not discriminate against any person based on their intrinsic worth. He forms binding relationships with anyone who receives the gift. That said, if ancient gift-giving took into consideration the ethnicity or social status of the individual, and if God's gift/grace now by-passes these previous social standards of discrimination, Paul can now challenge his congregation to form relationships with one another regardless of ethnicity, education, power or privilege solely on the basis of this same grace. Wow! That preaches! Though John shares his summary very irenically, it's still a powerful seven minutes worth listening to. So enjoy, and blessings as we head into the Thanksgiving holiday!

Monday, November 23, 2015

My flight back home is delayed, so while I'm waiting at the airport, I'm thinking the best use of my time is to do a quick post on SBL-AAR 2015. I won't be posting on every session and every paper that I attended but I will highlight what I feel were presentations either of particular interest to me personally, or I think would be of wider interest to those who, as Kevin Vanhoozer puts it, appreciate that one aspect of pastoral ministry is being a public theologian and therefore do not shy away from the insights born from engagement with academic study.

Pauline Epistles Session at SBL-AAR Atlanta on Sat morning (11/21/15)

The Saturday morning Pauline Epistles session (Nov 21) had some great papers. I'm grateful that David Wheeler-Reed mined Galen's recently discovered treatise De Indolentia (now published in a critical edition) for how its exposition on λυπή (often translated as "grief") might illuminate Paul's discourse (paper title: "Paging Dr. Paul: Reading Paul's Use of Grief with Galen"). Long story short, after a great summary of the treatise, Wheeler-Reed argued that the injunction μὴ λυπῆσθε in 1 Thessalonias 4:13 should be translated not as "Do not grieve" but "Do not distress over." Galen, of course, was writing much later than Paul, but the former's discourse onλυπή, so argued by Wheeler-Reed, was part of the wider linguistic currency of the Greco-Roman world that ran through the 1st century up until Galen's time. Theologically, the implications of the translation means that Paul was not against emotional grief per say (by all means, the loss of someone in this earthly life is an occasion to grieve, weep, and remorse). Rather "distress" relates to a mental state on how to deal with the tragedies and external circumstances surrounding an individual. Rather than reacting with visible demonstrations of panic, Paul's antidote to distress is faith, especially a faith which confesses that those who have died in the Lord will not be excluded from the benefits and promises of salvation. I'm not completely convinced that Paul would limit the definition of λυπή to exclude the emotional component of distress. Paul does say: Don't grieve as those who have no hope, not: dont' grieve at all [period!]. And since Galen was not a Stoic but accounted for emotional experience in moderated measure (see my essay in Klyne Snodgrass' Festschrift), I'm inclined to think that Paul's use of the term did include some emotional component. However, the paper was a helpful reminder that λυπή focuses not on an internal condition of the soul but one's deliberate (not knee-jerk) response to present external circumstances. I must mention also that my dean, colleague, and friend Stephen Chester gave a fantastic paper on "Conflicting or Mutually Dependent Perspectives?: Interpreting the Flesh, Sin, and the Human Plight in Paul." I don't think he meant to be humorous, but the points he made in his presentation were so clear, I could not help but laugh a few times throughout his presentation for the sheer irony that he was so ably cataloguing in his history of interpretation on Paul's justification language. His central thesis was that the New Perspective has made the mistake of lumping together the views of Augustine and Martin Luther so that in their re-reading of Paul, the NPP (= New Perspective on Paul) ends up faulting Luther for concepts that Luther himself does not support. In fact, if one examines Luther's interpretation of Galatians more closely, many of Luther's exegetical conclusions anticipate the criticisms of the NPP against Augustine. In regards to Luther's understanding of the flesh vs. the Spirit, for example, the NPP has accused Luther of being dualistic in his views of human anthropology. However, Luther, in a text quoted by Chester, actually says:

The apostle [Paul] does not wish to be understood as saying that the flesh and the spirit are two separate entities, as it were, but whole... [LW 25:339-41 = WA 56:350, 22 - 352, 9]. Note that one and the same man at the same time serves the law of God and the law of sin, at the same time is righteous and sins! For he does not say: "My mind serves the law of God," nor does he say: "My flesh serves the law of sin," but "I, the whole man," the same person, I serve a two-fold servitude." [LW 25:336 = WF 56:347, 2-6; excerpt from a handout given by Chester]

When Luther talks about the whole person, he is hardly being dualistic or positing an anthropological hierarchy (human spirit > flesh). So when N.T. Wright says:

[Paul's anthropological terms] sometimes appear to designate different 'parts' of a human being, but, as many have pointed out, it is better to see as each encoding a particular way of looking at the human being as a whole but from one perticular angle (Paul and the Faithfulness of God, p. 491; excerpt from Chester's handout)

Luther would agree with Wright, and would add: And I said it first! Luther says the whole man serves God or sins. He does not think two different faculties in a person are at war with each other in some sort of (Neo)platonic dualism as Augustine does, but the NPP wrongly posits Luther's position as Augustinian. So there is a delicious irony at work: the NPP has defined its movement vis-à-vis the Reformers but in fact many of its tenets (e.g., a holistic view of the flesh, or sin as an apocalyptic power) continue to depend on the exegetical work of the Reformers like Luther. This paper, by the way, is part of a larger monograph that Stephen is almost finished with, and is tentatively entitled: Righteousness in Christ: Paul, the Reformers, and the New Perspective. He plans to submit a manuscript to Eerdmans and we will probably see it debut at the next SBL-AAR 2016 in San Antonio, Texas. Can't wait!

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Friday Night Plenary Session with Craig Bartholomew at IBR
speaking on "Old Testament Origins and the Question of God"

I don't know if I can do this for every session, but may be I can post on highlights of the day while I am at SBL-AAR 2015 in Atlanta. Last night, I heard a very challenging address by Dr. Craig Bartholomew, the H. Evan Runner Chair and Professor of Philosophy at Redeemer University. His paper title was "Old Testament Origins and the Question of God," which gives a nod to N.T. Wright's "Christian Origins and the Question of God" series now in its fifth volume. There were many good challenges to Bartholomew's address, but the most poignant one was re-assessing how historical criticism should be practiced. He charged that any theory is underdetermined in relation to the data it seeks to explain. It is time to re-assess whether historical criticism underdetermines too much data so its interpretative model no longer remains useful for reconstructing and understanding a historical event. Bartholomew gave this example from OT history: as soon as you read the Penteteuch at the literary and theological level, Moses is clearly a central figure. But at the level of historicity or historical criticism, scholars have virtually erased Moses from history and certainly do accept, even in mediated form, the idea that Moses contributes to the authorship of the Penteteuch. Bartholomew went on to suspect that the need to re-assess how the scholar practices historical criticism would have come sooner had it not been for the "post-modern tsunami" which blew in alternative forms of criticism (new literary, rhetorical, reader-response, deconstruction, post-colonial, and others) into biblical studies. Before exegetes realized they needed to make revisions to the historical-critical method, scholarship, in response to the post-modern tsunami, retracted deeper into historical criticism as a default method because of the destabilizing effects of new and competing criticisms. Though delayed by the emergence of competing post-modern criticisms, Bartholomew feels that biblical scholars are long overdue in re-evaluating and revising how historical criticism is practiced, so data is more adequately determined and interpreted. Wow! This lecture certainly gives me much to think about!

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Continuing from my previous poston must-buy's at the book exhibit, I am writing here about books that have been advertised by publishers for debut at SBL-AAR 2015. These I'm not sure if I'm going to get or not, but I hope to browse through them before I decide to make a purchase. So the standing-on-the-fence book buy's include Michael Wolter's Paul: An Outline of His Theology, which was translated by Robert Brawley from Wolter's original 2011 Paulus. So thankful to Bob for making this work available in English.

Next up are two books being published by Baker Academic which I don't know much about but the titles, nevertheless, have caught my attention. I'm always interested in work where historiography and the life of Apostle Paul juxtapose, but Patrick Gray's book Paul as a Problem in History and Culture looks more like one that focuses on reception history and why, historically and culturally, Paul has received his fair share of critics and fans.

Then there is the collection of essays edited by Scot McKnight and Joseph B. Modica, Apostle Paul and the Christian Life, where the authors explore the ethical and missional implications of the New Perspective. I take it that if the NP movement is correct, how does their rereading of Paul affect the way the church ministers to its congregations and shares the gospel? Great question to explore! I'm not a NP scholar but an Old Perspective Redux kind-of-guy; in other words, I appreciate the challenges of a NP reading of Paul, whose work forces me, in the good way, to reread Paul's letters and understand the apostle in his Jewish context. So this book helps in showing positively to students why a 1990's debate on the Judaism(s) of Paul makes a difference in appropriating his theology today.

A former fellow Intertextuality and New Testament Interpretation steering committee member, Roy Jeal, just published his commentary on Philemon as part of SBL Press' new Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity series. Roy might have even referenced a post I did on Philemon here at Paul Redux, so I'm curious to see if a HT my way made it in the final published draft of his work. But really, kudos to Roy on his work and I'm keen to hear what he has to say about slavery and freedom in the gospel. Given the horrible history of misreadings of Philemon, I think a commentary committed to how Paul's rhetoric, in subtle and explicit ways, redefines slave relations in the Greco-Roman world is a needed and a welcome addition to the many commentaries out there on Philemon.

Without knowing much about the book other than its title, I'm also curious to browse through Jane Lancaster Patterson's monograph on the metaphorical uses of sacrifice in the Philippian and Corinthian letter correspondences, entitled: Keeping the Feast.

I almost missed this, and the advertisements on Festschriften usually get drowned out by other upcoming releases, but Wipf & Stock is publishing a collection of essays honoring well-known New Testament scholar Andrew Lincoln, edited by J. Gordon McConville and Lloyd Pietersen. Among the contributors are: N.T. Wright, Sylvia Keesmat, James Dunn, L. Ann Jervis, Philip Esler, Michael Gorman, Stephen Barton, Stephen Fowl, John Webster, Loveday Alexander... wait a minute! May be I should move this Festschrift to the "Shut-up-and-take-my-money" list:

Out in February (but will they have a display copy?) is Michael Bird's upcoming illustrated-by-Tomie-DePoala boyhood biography for children... whoops! I mean his commentary on Romansin Zondervan's The Story of God Bible commentary series (click the link above if you missed the joke post by Mike... have to admit, he had me going for a while).

Monday, November 16, 2015

Between sessions and catching up with people, one highlight of SBL-AAR is walking through the book exhibit, finding some jewels among a treasure trove of books, monographs, reference works, and commentaries. Many of my favorite publishers and university presses will be there in Atlanta, and they each offer a range of discounts, some as much as 40-50% off the sticker price. I already having a working shopping list of purchases I have mind, divided between four groups: 1) must-buy (or the "Shut up and take my money (already)" books, 2) I-want-to-browse-it-first-before-I-give-you-the-dough books, 3) I-want-you-but-you're-too-expensive-for-me-to-buy-without-risking-the-wrath-of-my-wife books, and 4) pleasant-but-unexpected-purchases or let's-take-this-puppy-home book because it's too good a deal to pass up. Of course, I don't know what the 4th category of books will be until I roam the book exhibits and accidently stumble upon something I value. The 3rd category is a secret so I can give myself some wriggle room for a sneaky clandestine purchase from you-know-who. But I can comment on the 1st and 2nd categories in this and a subsequent post. So here are my tentative picks for category 1:

The must-buy books are Paul and the Gift by John Barclay, but to be honest, I already bought my copy because I could not wait.

Richard Longenecker's long-awaited technical NIGTC on Romans was supposed to debut at Atlanta though all the online sellers seem to indicate that it will be a month or two later. Hopefully, Eerdmans will at least have a display copy at their table to peruse:

This last must-buy is not a book on Paul but nevertheless, a long, long awaited commentary on the Gospel of John from a premier Johannine scholar whose past work tells me that Marianne Meye Thompson's NTL Commentary on John will be the go-to-volume for the fourth gospel for a long time:

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Continuing from the previous post, on Sunday Nov 22, I plan to attend the Worship Service of the Institute for Biblical Research at 7:30am. Then, for the morning sessions, I'm looking at: S22-140Pauline Epistles11/22/20159:00 AM to 11:30 AMRoom: 209 (Level 2) - Hilton

I'm particularly interested in Anderson's paper on idols and idol food in the Corinthian correspondence, and to hear what Deming thinks are shared categories in moral philosophy and ethics between Paul and the Stoics. I have my ideas on the subject but I would be curious to hear Deming's own independent evaluation on the matter, and catalogue his assertions/suspicions along side those of Troels Engberg-Pedersen and a growing number of Scandinavian scholars who have written on the topic in a jewel of an essay collection, sadly not getting quite enough press, entitled: Stoicism in Early Christianity (2010). For the early afternoon session, I'm heading over to: S22-237Philo of Alexandria11/22/20151:00 PM to 3:30 PMRoom: International 4 (International Level) - Marriott

Theme: Philo & the History of InterpretationSeminar papers will be available on-line at http://torreys.org/philo_seminar_papers/.

An appealing feature of the above section is that the papers, for the most part, are already available to be read (here). The session is therefore dedicated to discussion of the papers, and over the years, there have been some very good ones. I'll have to make the most of my airplane flight and read especially Navaros Cordova's and Francis' papers so I can track whatever dialogue or debate ensues. For Sunday late afternoon/evening, I'm stuck again. I want to attend the Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics session but every year, I also attend the Korean Biblical Colloquium, especially to support rising scholars in biblical studies who read their papers for the first time at KBC. S22-308Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics11/22/20154:00 PM to 6:30 PMRoom: 202 (Level 2) - Hilton

Theme: A Preposition You Can't RefuseThis session is dedicated to Greek prepositions. The history of preposition scholarship, linguistic theories, and issues of exegesis will be addressed.

Dilemma! Dilemma! Dilemma! What I'm likely to do is attend the first half of the BGLL session and run over to KBC to catch the New Testament papers by Kim and Park.P22-327Korean Biblical Colloquium11/22/20154:00 PM to 6:30 PMRoom: 210 (Level 2) - HiltonImmediately following the papers, we will have a brief business meeting. Afterwards, we invite members (and guests) to dinner at a nearby restaurant (TBA).

After the day's sessions are over, I'm off to a dinner with Levant and the folks at Tuktu Tours to hear more about the possibility of a trip to Asia Minor to see the seven cities of Revelation. I'm hoping all the details can be worked out. I'm eager to go! On Monday Nov 23, after the Full Theological Seminary breakfast at 7:00am, I'm going to have to miss the morning session featuring a book review of John Barclay's Paul and the Gift (2015) because I'm chairing a session for the Intertextuality and New Testament Interpretation Section. The papers for the INTI session look fantastic. It's just a shame that our session has to compete with the review of Barclay's book. After the morning session is over, I'm heading to the airport and back to Chicago. I'm cutting my trip a day short and returning on Monday instead of Tuesday like I normally do.S23-133Pauline Soteriology11/23/20159:00 AM to 11:30 AMRoom: Marquis A-B (Marquis Level) - Marriott

Theme: Review of John Barclay, Paul and the Gift (Eerdmans 2015)

Alexandra Brown, Washington and Lee University, Presiding

Joel Marcus, Duke University, Panelist (20 min)

Margaret Mitchell, University of Chicago, Panelist (20 min)

Miroslav Volf, Yale University, Panelist (20 min)

Break (10 min)

John Barclay, University of Durham, Respondent (40 min)Discussion (40 min)

Hoping, nevertheless, to see many people for the INTI session on Paul and his rhetorical use of intertextual echoes. Safe travels to all who are going to Atlanta one week from tomorrow! MJLS23-124Intertextuality in the New Testament11/23/20159:00 AM to 11:30 AMRoom: L404 (Lobby Level) - Marriott

Saturday, November 7, 2015

What happened to the time? The Society of Biblical Literature and American Academy of Religion annual meeting held in Atlanta this November 21-24, 2015 is only 2 weeks way... argh! I'm not ready. Someone slow down time and give me an extra month! Well, as I peruse through the catalogue of sessions, I have come up with my top picks and also the dilemma: when sessions overlap but individual papers do not compete, do I try to run over to the other session to catch a paper I want to hear or just plant my seat in one session and ride it out. This year, there are few tough choices, but not as much as there were last year, thank God! Typically, I fly to SBL on Friday, and attend IBR's plenary Friday evening (Nov. 20's)session: P20-401Institute for Biblical Research11/20/20157:00 PM to 9:00 PMRoom: Marquis A-B (Marquis Level) - Marriott

For Saturday Nov. 21, there are 2 sessions I'm interested in, and I'm in a dilemma on which one to attend: S21-136Pauline Epistles11/21/20159:00 AM to 11:30 AMRoom: International 8 (International Level) - Marriott

I very much want to hear the first three papers, especially since my dean and colleague Stephen Chester is sure to knock a grand-slam out of the park with his paper on Reformation readings of Paul that wed both forensic and participation categories of justification rather than seeing them as competitive. However, the next section has some excellent papers as well: S21-137Poverty in the Biblical World11/21/20159:00 AM to 11:30 AMRoom: Hanover G (Exhibit Level) - Hyatt

Dilemma, Dilemma, Dilemma! My mentor and dissertation supervisor Judy Gundry has a paper on idol food, and that topic is particularly salient to my work (so do the first two papers that precede her). Judy is miles ahead of me as an exegete and her paper presentations have the enviable quality of being packed with information and yet a clear articulation of a complex thesis. I'll probably make my decision at the 11th hour. The rest of the afternoon and evening look fairly straightforward for what I'm interested in: S21-238Philo of Alexandria; Corpus Hellenisticum Novi TestamentiJoint Session With: Philo of Alexandria, Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti11/21/20151:00 PM to 3:45 PMRoom: A701 (Atrium Level) - Marriott

To me, the above is a no-brainer, hands-down, do not miss session. Except for Julian Elschenbroich and Zlatko Plese, I have read the works of all the presenters for their contribution to ancient moral philosophy. This session is the 2nd of a 3-year series by Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti in revisiting the intertextual and conceptual connections between Plutarch and the New Testament. Last year's session on the religion and ethics of Plutarch was fantastic. I'm looking forward to hearing how Philo's and Plutarch's religious tenets meet in the world of Paul and early Christianity. In the later afternoon, I have to juggle a business meeting with the Intertextuality and New Testament Interpretation Section from 4-4:30pm, but then I plan to race over to catch the last two papers, one by a former colleague who used to teach at North Park (Genevive Dibley). I'm keen to hear what Genevive has to say about the redemption of the Gentiles in Romans (9-11) in comparison with Jewish eschatologies and the vindication of the righteous. Her doctoral work was in my former almer mater U.C. Berkeley and one of her mentors was the expert on Judaism, Daniel Boyarin.S21-337Paul Within Judaism11/21/20154:00 PM to 6:30 PMRoom: International 8 (International Level) - Marriott

Whew! Good first two days. I'll write on the rest of SBL in a follow-up post. If anyone who reads this blog happens to be at SBL Atlanta, I'll be at the following two receptions. Catch me there and feel free to say "hello"! Would love to chat about all things Paul and the Greco-Roman world. M21-403 William B. Eerdmans Reception11/21/20157:00 PM to 9:00 PMRoom: Westin-Augusta 1-3 (7th floor)M21-414 Baker Academic and Brazos Reception11/21/20158:00 PM to 10:00 PMRoom: Westin-Chastain1-2 (6th floor)